This application is seeking support for a new Assistant Professor in the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CRM), at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School. This individual will be located in recently completed laboratory and office space for CRM, on the MGH main campus, as part of a 10 faculty physically adjoined unit within the Simches Building housing five interdisciplinary centers. The CRM space is open lab format to encourage interaction and includes GMP level facilities for clinical grade cell preparations, a polymer handling suite for bioengineered matrix construction and a computational biology suite housing a cadre of bioinformatics experts. The CRM is a multidisciplinary organization established in 2003 incorporating individuals from the Departments of Medicine, Surgery, Neurosurgery, Cell Biology, Genetics and Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. After review of over 70 candidates, a physician-scientist with a record of excellent research in lung developmental and regenerative biology as well as clinical expertise in lung disease was selected. This candidate, Dr. Jayaraj Rajagopal, is focused on the application of lung stem cells and regeneration to human lung disease. Aims: 1.) To recruit a physician-scientist focusing on stem cell based approaches to human disease 2.) To establish a laboratory with state-of-the-art facilities to enhance our understanding and potential application of lung developmental biology to lung disease.3.) To foster the success of a future thought leader in regenerative medicine for lung disease. In contrast to recent progress in blood and cardiac stem cell biology, work in the lung remains underdeveloped. We wish to recruit a new faculty candidate to the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. We believe our candidate's interest in the therapeutic uses of lung stem cells and developmental biology will lay a foundation for regenerative medicine in the lung.